 Meeting with neighbors at Mira Mesa Community Park. By Tommy Hough As more of our neighbors are vaccinated and the threat of COVID-19 begins to recede, the challenges that faced our neighborhoods prior to 2020 are still there, and in some cases have worsened. It takes way too long to rebuild our broken streets and sidewalks. The rent for many is too high. Our beaches still become toxic soups during storms. And, in addition to these everyday issues, our Asian American neighbors are facing a rising tide of hatred and prejudice – an intolerable proposition for anyone in this country. That's why I'm declaring my candidacy today for the San Diego City Council District 6 seat. I want to ensure San Diego truly "Builds Back Better" by safeguarding our environment, investing in our infrastructure, and protecting every one of our neighbors in Clairemont, Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, Sorrento Valley, Miramar, and Rancho Peñasquitos. Together, we can restore an American Dream of safe streets and sidewalks, healthy canyons and creeks, and vibrant neighborhoods. As a San Diego County Planning Commissioner, founder of San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action, and broadcast journalist I've fought to protect open space, restore our natural wetlands, and revitalize our neighborhoods. I will put forth a municipal plan to fix our streets, restore our parks, and protect our neighbors.  When I ran for the District 6 seat as the endorsed Democratic candidate in 2018, my team and I launched a grassroots coalition that knocked on every door in the district. In many areas, we did so twice. I'm looking forward to resuming these conversations in order to hear my fellow San Diegans' concerns and priorities.
But to win, I need your help. I can't make any of this happen without raising the funds we'll need to compete. Many of you know how close we came to winning in 2018, so please know your contribution will be critical in building momentum, support, and viability in defeating the special interests. I cannot overemphasize the importance of having a competitive war chest. Please visit tommyhough.com today and make a contribution via our ActBlue account. You know I'm a fighter who will always put our neighborhoods first. Let's send a message to City Hall.
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 By Tommy Hough
As I wrote last month, I'm disgusted at the alarming trend of hatred and intimidation directed against our AAPI neighbors since the beginning of the pandemic, and especially the spike in violence since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th. This ugliness not only manifested itself in an attack on an elderly Filipino woman on the San Diego Trolley last month, but the non-profit Stop AAPI Hate reported dozens of anti-Asian incidents in San Diego throughout last year. Last Thursday the Washington Post reported "Asian and Asian American families are choosing to keep their children learning from home" even as schools reopen out of a fear of harassment, while ABC News reported on the long-term mental health effects of anti-Asian harassment and violence. In my remarks to the Clairemont Town Council last Thursday, I said this is intolerable in any community, but especially in our community. This affects our neighbors, friends, and loved ones, and it's put the heart of our District 6 community in a state of fear and stress about the safety of our streets and sidewalks. When the Trump administration instituted the Muslim ban, we were at the airport to show that was awful, unacceptable policy. My wife is a naturalized citizen from Mexico, and when Trump used hateful speech to describe our neighbors to the south, we made our opposition clear. We've done the same when our LGBTQ neighbors are threatened and harassed. We must do the same now. While I wrote about this crisis a few weeks ago, today I delivered a letter to the city's Human Relations Commission to ask the commission to increase its outreach to AAPI communities and related organizations throughout the city. I want to ensure the city increases its vigilance regarding anti-Asian violence, just as we and our neighbors are increasing our own vigilance. I've also called on the Human Relations Commission to schedule hearings on the epidemic of anti-Asian hate as soon as it's safe to gather at neighborhood libraries and recreation centers. And I've asked that the city make law enforcement, fire personnel, and other public safety services part of the dialogue to discuss the potential for cultural misunderstandings that may arise from language barriers or incomplete communication, and which could discourage some elderly AAPI neighbors from reporting a hate-related incident. You can read the letter here. As I wrote earlier, look after your neighbors, especially your elderly neighbors. Ensure they feel safe, and that they know you or a friend or family member is nearby. Offer a ride if they need one. Be seen, make yourself available, and let your neighbors know you're only a few doors away. We are a nation of laws, but laws alone will not change hearts or cure hate that has had decades to take hold. We must begin with each other, with responsible rhetoric, and the common decency far too many of us deny our neighbors and strangers. I hope you'll join me in this simple, needed task, and I encourage you to visit Stop AAPI Hate for more. May you and your loved ones be safe and well.  Built in 1936, the San Diego County Administration building is a classic in art deco design and architecture. By Tommy Hough I was honored to be selected by District 3 Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer as her office's appointment to the San Diego County Planning Commission earlier this month. Following a unanimous vote on consent approving the appointment by the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 9th, I was sworn in to my new position on Feb. 19th. In the wake of last fall's election and subsequent political realignment on the Board of Supervisors, we've already seen a great deal of positive leadership and change at the county. One of the most notable is the supervisors' unanimous vote to move San Diego County to zero carbon emissions by 2035, making it the largest county in the U.S. to commit to achieving this important, and tangible, goal. We've also seen the county decisively draw a needed leadership line on social justice by declaring racism a public health crisis in San Diego County. With violent attacks on elderly AAPI neighbors and community members increasing in California and around the nation, including an egregious incident this past weekend on the San Diego Trolley, this declaration comes not a moment too soon, with the county administrative officer tasked to deliver an actionable plan to the board within 90 days. On the conservation front, a marvelous watershed was reached when the board voted to purchase 98 acres of land declared surplus by the Helix Water Board in the El Monte Valley near Lakeside for recreation and conservation, with the intent of tying local trails into nearby El Monte County Park along the south side of the valley. With new leadership in place, this too passed the board with a unanimous vote. As an environmentalist, I'm exceptionally proud to also mark a change in the approach to the planning commission as Supervisor Lawson-Remer's appointee. With rising sea levels and more frequent wildfires in wildland-urban interface zones, San Diego County is already fighting a two-front war against climate change. But we also have issues relating to preserving biodiversity, endangered species, wildlife corridors, and the need for more holistic approaches to wildfire prevention as the most biodiverse county in the lower 48 states. This too is part of what makes San Diego County such a spectacular locale and desirable place to live and work. I pledge to fully balance and weigh our various community, economic, and environmental interests in the pursuit of the highest quality of life for our neighbors and communities in San Diego County. I'm eager to get started. Thank you again to Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer for her trust and support in this role, and thank you to my neighbors, community, and family for their ongoing support. May you and your loved ones be safe and well.   Still from Tuesday's ABC 10 story on the attack on a Filipino woman on the San Diego Trolley. By Tommy Hough
As San Diegans, we cherish our diverse, multicultural city and heritage, and we put a premium on safe, welcoming neighborhoods and communities. But like you, I've grown increasingly concerned, and incensed, at the increase in attacks and violence against our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) neighbors and community members over the last several weeks. This monstrous trend has escalated from verbal assaults and the screaming of unprovoked insults, to spitting and coughing on someone, to punching, shoving, and even hitting someone from behind. An elderly man in San Francisco died in January after he was shoved to the pavement, and on Tuesday KGTV ABC 10 reported an elderly Filipino woman was punched in the face while riding the San Diego Trolley. The attack occurred, apparently, without any provocation. This made me ill to my core. This is someone's grandmother. This violence must stop. It must end NOW. I condemn any and all hateful rhetoric or violence against our AAPI neighbors, friends, and family members in the strongest terms. Those responsible for the attack on the San Diego Trolley must be held accountable, and hate crime statutes must be applied in prosecuting these reprehensible actions. Much of this terror directed at our AAPI neighbors, from New York to California, is attributable to our former president, who kicked open the pandora's box of American intolerance, and fueled anti-Asian sentiment over the last year with racist rhetoric in reaction to, and to deflect attention from, his administration's inability to respond to the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic. A report from the Stop AAPI Hate Youth Campaign recorded over 2,800 firsthand incidents of anti-Asian hate in the U.S. from March 19th to Dec. 31st, marking a clear correlation between the current plague of attacks, the pandemic, and the former president's rhetoric throughout 2020. And it's become worse since the New Year, with elderly AAPI citizens specifically targeted. As we've seen throughout history, hoping a violent trend will stop or "go away" is no solution. This epidemic of violence against some of our most vulnerable, elderly residents is something we cannot ignore. Coupled with the cruelty and debasement of the hateful or violent act, racism in all its forms is a health risk to us all. Our city must increase investment and partnerships with programs that promote AAPI-owned businesses and AAPI-led community organizations, as it pledged to do with the city council's adoption of Resolution 313068 on June 4th, which denounced xenophobia and anti-Asian racism in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the city and our police must do more so all our neighbors, especially the elderly, are safe in our neighborhoods, on our streets and sidewalks, and in our local businesses and parking lots. I'm committed to working with neighborhood resources to combat racism and hate. Our county board of supervisors has already declared racism to be a public health crisis, but that can only be the beginning. As terrible as violence is, it is the corrosive result of the long-simmering societal cancers of racism and hate. Please look after your neighbors, especially your elderly neighbors. Ensure they feel safe, and that they know you or a friend or family member is nearby. Offer a ride if they need one. Be seen, make yourself available, and let your neighbors know you're only a few doors away. We are a nation of laws, but laws alone will not change hearts or cure hate that has had decades to take hold. We must begin with each other, with responsible rhetoric, and the common decency far too many of us deny our neighbors and strangers. I hope you'll join me in this simple, needed task, and I encourage you to visit Stop AAPI Hate for more.  By Tommy Hough
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing this year's Love Your Wetlands Day to a virtual setting, I hosted the first of several Love Your Wetlands Day webinars for the San Diego Audubon Society and the ReWild Mission Bay campaign with a presentation from Dr. Lisa Stratton, director of ecosystem management with the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) at UC Santa Barbara, who discussed their successful effort to restore and "rewild" an abandoned seaside golf course into 665 acres of restored wetlands, natural habitat, and open space at the mouth of Devereux Creek on the UCSB campus in Goleta. The entire presentation from Feb. 9th, including greetings from several of our local elected officials, is now on-line at the San Diego Audubon YouTube account.  Transmission pylons cross the cul-de-sac in the SDGE right-of-way on Kamwood St. in Mira Mesa. By Tommy Hough
There aren't any District 6 dates scheduled yet, but here's the posted list so far of public meetings and community forums announced by the city to discuss the future of our city's energy franchise, worth billions of dollars. As public interest in an eventual city-owned public utility gains traction, the 50-year agreement with San Diego Gas and Electric, the Sempra-owned utility that's been the city's sole energy provider since 1970, and for decades before that, ended at the end of last year and was due to expire last week. City council voted unanimously on a proposal by Mayor Gloria to extend the franchise agreement an additional five months through June 1st so negotiations on a new agreement can continue. The next agreement the city signs with a provider, likely to be San Diego Gas and Electric unless another bidder enters the fray, will have broad and lasting ramifications including exclusive rights to use our city's roads, streets, and right-of-ways for transmission and distribution, as well as to install wires, poles, power lines, and underground gas and electric lines. This marks the first time in 50 years the city is renegotiating its franchise agreement, meaning residents continue to have a historic opportunity to set the terms of our energy future. And we need to do so in a manner that is accurately attuned to the true value of the franchise.
More information and additional forums will likely be announced soon. Hopefully we'll get at least one relating to District 6. If you're curious, have a look at the city's just-expired 50-year franchise agreement with San Diego Gas and Electric, dated Dec. 17, 1970.  President Joseph R. Biden taking the oath of office earlier today. By Tommy Hough
Like you, I'm heartened today, and I feel a great sense of relief with the changing of administrations in Washington, D.C. The last four years have been so traumatic for our nation, I think we're all in a state of shock that may last for some time. Unlike previous periods of national unrest, this time we didn't have the benefit of an opposition with a shared adherence to reason, a commitment to accuracy, or a willingness to exist in a shared reality. With everything we've grown to deal with over the last four years, from choosing which presidential or policy outrage to respond to, which one to put in perspective, and which one to put on the shelf because we didn't have the emotional bandwidth that week to process it, it may take several weeks for us to fully realize the transition in administrations has occurred and find a spring in our step again. To our nation's credit, in times of peace, war, and tragedy, we have always ensured a secure, peaceful transition of power. Today was a continuation of that great tradition. But I find it terribly sad that, for the first time in our history, we've had to conduct a presidential inauguration under such highly militarized conditions, with over 25,000 National Guard troops mobilized to protect Washington, D.C., and ensure the inauguration goes smoothly in the wake of the domestic terrorist attack on the legislative branch of our federal government. Even President Lincoln's second inauguration, held at the height of the Civil War in 1865 with tens of thousands of Union troops defending the nation's capital, wasn't as divorced from the public as today's transfer of power was. That necessity demanded it makes this an extraordinary, and regrettable, moment in our history. It remains unbelievable, even after four years of the previous administration's incitements, that concerns are as high as they are over the threat of attacks by radicalized right-wing elements, empowered by ridiculous conspiracy theories and decades of misinformation, emboldened by easy access to murderous weapons of war and military hardware, coupled with the grotesque lie enabled by the departed president and his acolytes in Congress that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent. Who among us would have ever believed hordes of our fellow citizens – armed, violent, prepared to take hostages and conduct "citizen's arrests" for absurd, wholly imagined crimes – would behave as they did on Jan. 6th, engaging in an attack on our democracy that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer, and which drove another officer to take his own life several days later? Who among us would have ever believed fellow Americans would be incited to sedition by a sitting President of the United States? Like the authoritarian carnival barker he is, the president ginned up his mob on live TV with the most inflammatory remarks ever uttered by a chief executive, and then dispatched the mob to the Capitol saying he'd be walking with them while instead he slinked back to the White House to safely watch the mayhem unfold on television. And who would have ever believed these individuals would then photograph themselves, in real time, live streaming their violent crimes on the web in all their grotesque entitlement. Who would have ever believed reason and reality would be in such short supply among Americans in the third decade of the 21st century? You and I, and our neighbors and communities, are facing the cumulative effect of over 40 years' worth of crafted misinformation, whipped into a frenzy by the now previous administration. While many cite President Reagan's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 as the beginning of the era of rage-filled, reason-defying, bloodthirsty political rants on AM radio promoted as entertainment by the kind of irresponsible media that now bequeaths to us public psychopaths like Alex Jones, our modern age of destructive, falsehood-driven media can be traced back even further, to Reed Irvine's comparatively sober Accuracy In Media movement from the late 1960s. As I tell friends, colleagues, and volunteers who aren't old enough to remember, our political discourse wasn't always as toxic as many on the right have made it today. Congress had a 40-year period of largely progressive and effective policymaking from 1954 to 1994, when compromise was key, and working together in good faith to find solutions across party lines as partners was normal, and valued. Our political process must to return to that tradition. The ugly, chronological points that fueled our national schism: Lee Atwater and the 1988 presidential election, Newt Gingrich and the 1994 midterms, the absurdity of the Tea Party in the 2010 midterms, along with increasingly destructive media outlets more concerned about likes and views, controversy and conflict, rather than effective, sober reporting, are still with us. It's up to all of us to move beyond that, and put a premium on a shared reality in which we make real world decisions for the betterment of all Americans. Some people think politicians are all talk. Plenty are. But the key is listening, and working together with compassion to address the problems of our nation, and our neighborhoods, together. I hope you'll join me in this effort here in San Diego. More to come on that front soon. In the meantime, I hope you, your family, and your loved ones are safe and well. Take a moment to breathe in the air and appreciate this day, and celebrate our deliverance from ignorant tyranny. And resolve to remain engaged to ensure fringe madness remains on the margins, not in seats of power.  A mature eucalyptus tree along the dry banks of San Mateo Creek, San Onofre State Beach. By Tommy Hough Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's going to be a relatively light year for legislation at the Assembly with fewer bills than usual. With the deadline for bill introduction in Sacramento still several weeks away, we aren't entirely sure what will be introduced just yet, but one of the more intriguing bits of policy is a bill to be backed by a group of legislators led by Sen. Scott Wiener, Sen. Monique Limon, and Assemblymember Robert Rivas to ban fracking. That's a Very Big Deal, and something we should encourage to ensure is done without gratuitous loopholes. There will likely be a bill to establish a greater protective buffer for health purposes between oil and natural gas drilling sites and homes, workplaces, and schools. A bill on this matter passed the Assembly last year as AB 345, but was stopped in the Senate Natural Resource and Water Committee by intense lobbying by the California Building Trades Council and oil industry. One of the more notable environmental bills to come out of the last session was AB 2731, which went into effect on New Year's Day. AB 2731 concerns the NAVWAR site near Old Town that's been identified as the nucleus of the new SANDAG "Grand Central Station" transportation hub proposal in conjunction with the city, airport authority, and port. NAVWAR is an acronym for Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. If you're wondering, yes, NAVWAR is the former SPAWAR, i.e. the Space and Naval Warfare System Center, which changed its name in 2019. The final version of AB 2731, signed into law in October, essentially creates a path for the project to move forward with judicial streamlining that exempts it from adhering to CEQA, i.e. the California Environmental Quality Act., and instead relies on an environmental review to be conducted by the U.S. Navy. Whatever you may think of SANDAG and the Five Big Moves proposal, we all agree a modern, clean-energy transportation system is critical for our region, but there's no reason why these kinds of capital projects should be excused from the basic environmental oversight and rules we ask of everyone who builds in this state to adhere to. Not only is the landmark passage of CEQA in 1970 what keeps California looking and feeling like California, but the basic components of CEQA are part of what we use to base our expectations and goals on in implementing and measuring the progress of the City of San Diego's Climate Action Plan. We must always resist efforts to weaken CEQA, whether in Sacramento, or on a project-by-project basis. I was very pleased to see San Onofre State Beach at last receive the full protection the park has long deserved, and needed, as the result of Gov. Newsom signing into law AB 1426 in October, which my friend and fellow environmentalist Stefanie Sekich-Quinn from Surfrider has been leading the fight on throughout her career. There must never be a freeway, or any kind of development, considered again through the Donna O'Neill Conservancy and San Onofre's San Mateo Campground along the length of San Mateo Creek, the very last intact watershed in Southern California south of Los Angeles that empties onto the beaches that make up the Trestles surf break at the mouth of the creek along the San Diego and Orange county line. There were several other bills in the last session I'd like to see have their "day in court" and move forward. One is Sen. Toni Atkins' SB 1100, which addresses the myriad of problems facing the state as the result of climate change and sea level rise. I've been saying for years, going back to my time at the San Diego Surfrider chapter, that our region must begin to plan for a managed retreat from the sea, in both low-lying areas and steep seaside bluffs. Also, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia's AB 2839 would establish a California Deserts Conservancy within the Natural Resources Agency to protect, conserve, and manage ecosystems and resources in California's desert regions in both the Mojave (high) and Colorado (low) deserts as a compliment to the 1994 California Desert Protection Act. Such an initiative could lend additional funding and preservation measures, as well as enhanced Indigenous management, to places like the Indio Hills along the San Andreas Fault in the Coachella Valley Preserve. Regarding state regulatory agencies, the California Energy Commission is expected to adopt a new round of Title 24 building codes designed to cut energy use. Environmental groups are pushing for the code to be updated to set a more rigorous standard that will electrify new buildings, and end the inclusion of natural gas in new buildings built after 2022. The California Air Resources Board is developing new standards to encourage trucking companies to transition fleets to zero-emission electric vehicles. This will be especially important for trucks in and around our ports, including San Diego and Long Beach. This has also been one of the key issues in the discussions over new comissioner appointees to the Port of San Diego. Speaking of electric vehicles, the governor proposed his 2021/22 budget last week, which includes a proposal to expand incentives for electric vehicles. That's consistent with the need to quickly transition the transportation sector to curb the effects of climate change and reduce air pollution. In my opinion the city, county, and other communities should incentivize, if not make it easier and more affordable overall, for motorists to purchase hybrids or emission-free cars as a component of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Newsom's budget also calls for new fees as part of proposed reforms to the Department of Toxic Substances Control. The fee and reforms will require a two-thirds vote of the legislature for passage, but the governor hasn't shown much ability to work with the legislature thus far, so getting the department's fees passed will be a test of his commitment and ability to win legislative support. Another proposal in the budget is to increase fees on pesticides, one of the most destructive sources of poisons and toxins in our watersheds, bays, and lagoons. The cumulative amount of toxins and heavy metals that enter Mission Bay every year at Rose Creek, for example, is bad enough, but the problem is compounded by "toxic events" when rainfall activates poisonous runoff. While fees are used to support pesticide regulation and enforcement, this too will require a two-thirds vote. Finally there's the implementation of Gov. Newsom's executive order to conserve 30 percent of state lands and coastal waters by 2030. The reason, as the governor puts it, is to fight species loss and ecosystem destruction. That's great, we're all in favor of it, but we'd like to see more on the implementation as California would join 38 countries in a commitment to conservation in doing so. Apparently there are implementation plans for the "30 by 30" proposal, as well as for a similarly-issued an executive order in September to require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California be zero-emission vehicles by 2035.  Overlooking the American River Valley, Marshall Gold Discovery State Park.  By Tommy Hough
Today is one of the most disgraceful days in the history of our republic. Can anyone look upon what our nation has become over the last four years and see any connection to the 240 years of American democratic norms, in times of peace and war, that preceded it? Many of us saw this coming, and tried to warn our neighbors against giving a man like the president, enabled by a disgraceful array of ignorant bootlickers and apologists, the reins of power. With the constant assault of willful, right-wing misinformation that permeates our media environment and has fractured families along political and social faultlines, is it any wonder so many of our neighbors have grown increasingly confused, bewildered, and fearful as they struggle to stay financially afloat and healthy, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? Today's terrorism did not occur in a vacuum. It has been enabled over the last 40 years by well-funded campaigns of intentional deception to politically divide and conquer, long-standing attempts to paint government as an enemy rather than a representative reflection of ourselves, and to deny that we have the power to improve our nation in the name of a more perfect union. The Greatest Generation went overseas to fight fascism and threats to democracy like those we've seen today. Our nation has twisted itself into a pretzel to inoculate it from threats of foreign terrorism in the years since the 9/11 attacks. But in 245 years our nation has never been subjected to a coup attempt of anything resembling the magnitude of what is occurring now. It is a disgrace. To find anything comparable we would have to go back to the conspiracy to murder President Lincoln and members of his cabinet in the spring of 1865. That today's violence and sedition were incited, in broad daylight, by the sitting President of the United States, who was actively adding fuel and oxygen to this fire long before his impeachment and electoral loss, is extraordinary. Those involved with today's sedition may be fighting for Donald Trump. But we are fighting for our nation, for decency, for equality, for equity, and for the institutions and norms that, while under exceptional stress, continue to serve our nation. They need care. Our Founding Fathers were many things, but they were wise, and they bequeathed to us the ability to continue improving our nation with an apparatus that is only as effective as those we seek to represent us as its caretakers. These will be trying years ahead. Democracy requires eternal vigilance, and it demands it no more so than at this moment. I hope you'll join me in this pursuit. May you and your loved ones be safe and well.  By Tommy Hough
Since last year's impeachment proceedings, the Trump administration and its ever-present array of constitutional crises has devolved into a cult so firmly entrenched among the cravenly ambitious, the foolish, the weak, and the deranged, that a full 140 elected GOP officials (perhaps more by Wednesday) are about to become even more complicit in the president's daily stream of lies, high crimes and misdemeanors, cataclysmic failure of leadership, and seditious statements on the results of the 2020 election and the normal, peaceful transition of power that has served our nation well for 245 years, in times of peace and war. These Republican elected officials are doing so at the behest of right-wing radio, TV, and online hosts desperate to continue feeding upon the cult of Trump for ratings, however appalling a failure for average Americans the Trump administration has been. They are also doing so out of a fear of Trump and the wrath of his Twitter account. But more than anything, these 140 elected GOP officials are doing so at the behest of an electorate they believe no longer considers functioning in a shared reality a requirement for the job. Instead of asking the best of their neighbors, they are cravenly indulging their most paranoid and deranged voters for whom reason means nothing – the cumulative effect of 35 years' worth of daily right-wing media conditioning. Yet despite their numbers, they do not speak for a majority of Americans. One year ago Republican senators were served up an opportunity on a silver platter, with Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee having done all the necessary work, to convict President Trump on House impeachment charges. With one notable exception, GOP senators opted not to convict the president despite overwhelming evidence Trump solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election to aid his re-election effort, then obstructed the inquiry by telling administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony while promoting an absurd conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The result? GOP senators abdicated their oaths and responsibility as senators, American citizens, and stewards of the American democratic tradition, and acquitted the president. To further pass the buck, they said voters would need to decide for themselves the ultimate verdict for Trump in November since Republican senators were too cowardly to do so in February. And of course, in November, the voters decided. Now, with even the twin escape hatches of an impeachment and Electoral College-certified election results giving Republican lawmakers all the cover even the most cowardly political toad would possibly need to just do the right thing, those same Republicans still want to overturn the legitimate results of the election – in many cases the same election that secured their own seats – with zero evidence compelling them to do so. We have reached the nadir of the Republican party, and over the last four years have seen it become nothing more than a tool of Trumpism and his brand of loot-the-treasury Third World authoritarianism. Beyond the steady stream of blatantly false, criminal misinformation about the validity of what was the most secure election in our nation's history, the GOP's ongoing attempts to stage a coup on the heels of their incumbent president's loss in both the popular and electoral vote is a disgrace without precedent in our nation's history – and that includes Watergate, Iran-Contra, and the Teapot Dome scandals. Those were parking tickets compared to this. I've long said the national GOP gave up on governing in good faith in 1994, but any concern the GOP may have once had about the appearance of naked partisanship has been swept away. It is as blatant a power grab as has ever been seen in our history, fueled by a GOP infuriated at the idea of actually having to relinquish power at some level after driving our nation into the ground for the second time in a dozen years. As we've seen, Trump and other Republicans are not above calling for or enabling mob rule in order to facilitate their continued rule, as undemocratic as even that rule has been. A two-party system of governance cannot function when one party refuses, time and time again for decades, to deal in good faith. At this hour the Vice President of the United States, as grotesque a Trump lapdog and sycophant as any, is endorsing an effort led by the wretched Texas senator Ted Cruz to deny the reality of the presidential election results. The smooth-talking Cruz and his handful of reality-jettisoning seditionists are well aware their attempt will fail, but are carrying through with the exercise to further bludgeon and delegitimize an already-weakened Joe Biden before his administration takes office, just as the well-funded "citizens movement" of the Tea Party did ahead of President Obama's inauguration 12 years ago. Of course, this is assuming the current occupant of the White House leaves at all. Despite having taken every opportunity over the last four years to disgrace the office he holds, I'm quite certain Trump will never leave, he'll just keep on behaving as "president" by continuing to use the White House presidential seal after Jan. 20th, along with anything else he and his family can steal. Make no mistake: You and I and are in the midst of our nation's greatest constitutional crisis since the shooting began in the Civil War 160 years ago. The GOP's blatant support of baseless insurrection in the face of abundant, contrary evidence is nothing less than a slow-moving coup – itself without precedent in our nation's history – and the most shocking, stunning abdication of American democracy and the American social contract. It is also the only logical end to the steady stream of ugly partisanship unleashed by an embittered GOP when the party first moved to nationalize elections for partisan ends during the 1994 midterm elections, and ceased functioning as a genuine partner in governance. The Republican Party, and all too many of its spokespersons and standard bearers, have embraced a cult of racist nihilism, aggressively fostered a climate of mistrust and rudderless doubt in institutions they once claimed to have held dear, and have repeatedly fed oxygen into a simmering, low-intensity civil war with one side armed with weapons they insist the other half of the nation is desperate to take away. That this is occurring – and has been occurring, in broad daylight, for months – in the midst of the nation's worst pandemic in 100 years is an ignominy and infamy that must never be forgotten, if we and our nation are fortunate enough to survive. Generations of Americans, historians, and anyone with a passing interest in this country will be unable to understand how any of this occurred without first acknowledging the successful, cumulative effect of right-wing propaganda, lies, and misinformation on a willing, albeit increasingly desperate populace over the last 35 years. I only hope the United States doesn't go the path of the Weimar Republic or other faltering democracies, saddled with a weak chief executive unable to rise above the din of a growing, uncontrollable right-wing clamor. I have no doubt Joe Biden, who I genuinely like, seeks to positively serve as a beacon of hope as the nation comes out of the immediate Trump era, but he is essentially a sign to status quo elites that "things are returning to normal" on the immediate stage of the executive branch. That will be a relief in the short term, but if that's all Biden is able to achieve, he will fail. Mr. Biden is not a come hell or high water, buck stops here, "follow me" leader in the mold of Harry Truman or Cory Booker. He's a political lifer. In an era in which he will be challenged by violent, right-wing domestic terrorism and fringe groups enabled by bottomless amounts of money designed to make it appear the nation is on the verge of chaos – thus setting the stage for an even more disingenuous, dangerous movement to "restore order" – not even a split Senate plus Kamala Harris' vote as Vice President may help push his wish list agenda forward. After all, the most immediate concern is cleaning up the wreckage and repairing the damage of four years of Donald Trump. Every illegality this nation tolerates, every Republican lawmaker on Wednesday that votes against the tide of reality and history with the Cult of Trump and its failed, reprehensible excuse for an administration, hastens this dark future. Perhaps our biggest flaw is never believing the GOP will go as low as they do. But at every turn, they continue to defy expectations, logic, and reality. Look no further than the root argument our now-former mayor is making against the sitting governor of California. We continue to be failed by our own imagination as to just how bad it can get, and as a result, we're constantly bringing the wrong weapon to the wrong fight. However ridiculous they may appear, the blatantly racist, authoritarian, violent, modern American inheritors of Hitler's Brownshirts marching on D.C. ahead of Wednesday, in opposition to what should be a normal transition of power, are armed, determined, headstrong, paranoid beyond all reason, and will travel thousands of miles in the belief of absurdities involving pizza parlors and video games. These will be difficult, trying years ahead. If democracy requires eternal vigilance, it demands it no more than at this moment. |
AuthorA San Diego County planning commissioner and former radio host and media personality, Tommy Hough works as an environmental consultant and communications professional, and is a California Democratic Party delegate and the co-founder and former president of San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action. Archives
March 2021
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